Somebody in your face? Maybe it's a bot..

http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12870-antisocial-bot-invades-second-lifers-personal-space.html



Somebody is getting paid to research this??

well..at least i won't feel guilty when i shoot it....

ok seriousness now: isnt this a sort of ToS violation?

My question is - a bot has been designed to do this? I venture out into SL at large, away from my regular places, and encounter space-invading-rude types regularly. OOOOOoooo...so these have all been bots?????? O.o

That's why I don't answer surveys or questionnaires. Stop wasting money finding out how people play a video game.

LOL, so it has to be able to pass the Turing test. Either that, or find some really stupid residents to play with.

My personal space while in SL is my couch. Nothing like this would ever bother me, so I'd be a poor subject.

We're always invading each others' personal space by accident anyway so the researchers have to overcome this fundamental flaw in their project somehow.

/sigh

This is only the beginning...

...the more popular SL becomes, the more it gets publicity in mainstream media, the more we are going to see this sort of BS. Hell, some of the residents here are using bots to data mine. Electric Sheep Company, for one.

I wonder what they will find about trends in SL. Has the gender of SL profile been distorted since more people from around the world have been joining. I have met lots of Brazilians and Argentinians but I think they have all been male avatars, as have been most of the Spanish and Portuguese people I've met.

I dub this one -

Pushy Bot.

This sounds like the best use of time and money since Lay's spent over a million dollars to find out that people like their potato chips to be crunchy.

please tell me you are kidding?

I thought that was to see if you could eat just one.........

I thought it was if you could lick it more than three times without biting...

Nope. And next week I am embarking on a four city tour to do focus groups to see if people like my cruise ship ad campaign with the black background or the white one. We are pulling for black.

I seem to keep running into Europeans (lots from the Netherlands), and all have been female (including Spanish; not sure if I've meet Portuguese). Have also meet some South Americans and they were both 1) all from Brazil, and 2) all male.

/me facepalms

At least I'm getting a free trip to see my dad in miami out of this boondoggle.

What color do you think he will pick?

and will he mat....nevermind....

I won't be able to show him the ads. Princess is afraid they might get into Royal Caribbean's hands so we keep them under lock and key. If they know we are considering a black background, they may change their's to a preemptive dark grey.

I had similar thoughts.

1. It should be OK to orbit a bot.

2. Doesnt LLabs require explicit approval for institutions doing research in SL?
Hmmm checking the TOS I can't see this, but its very tedious to read the whole TOS, searching for Research produced nothing relevant. I recall reading this at one time previously, perhaps this is no longer a requirement.

Stop, your getting me excited!

Black obviously, more romantic, associations with starry nights, candle light and dancing under the stars, cruises are romantic adventures, mystery, seems like an obvioius choice to me. Maybe you should just hire me, I will tell you what you need to know, and send you to Miami to see your Dad!

White: Reminisecent of the color of the ship and of the dress uniforms of the crew. Has a connotation with clean and fresh, which could be bewnificial after the number of cruise-born illnesses. Also reminds of bright light, pure, sandy beaches, and "white caps" on the water.

I'd go black, though, Might be an extra amount of ink, and more bleeds, but worth it overall.

Mari
(who clealry has never done anything like this before)
(Who also has no ties to the competitors, and hope you dun get into trouble for sharing dis here)